Matt, Deore's fine unless you are H4RDC0R5!
Matt, Deore's fine unless you are H4RDC0R5!
acket.
Last edited by overpowered; May 3rd, 2014 at 09:52 AM.
^ gotta love the performance enhancing substances above.
Rode the Allez this afternoon for an hour and a half. Don't know how far that was but it was very fun. The bike is light, fast, and comfortable.
Also, I finally bought one of the new (to me) breathable polyester shirts, but I didn't spend $25 or so as the sporting goods stores want for Nike and Under Armour shirts. Old Navy has their store brand shirts in several colors for $12 at regular price, and they were on sale last week for $8, so I bought one to try. One I see if it disintegrates in the wash or not (I'm suspicious of the low price), I'll buy more. I sweat plenty while riding as today we got into the low 80s for one of the first times this year but when I got off the bike I was completely dry. Amazing to this sweat-hog who is used to cotton tee shirts so full of sweat that I can literally wring them out.
But I'm not surprised. I had the same reaction when I finally went to modern skiing clothing and retired my old white waffle-fabric cotton long johns.
Hopefully can get out again tomorrow (Sunday) and the upcoming week of weather looks good for commuting to work.
Waffle fabric long-johns rule.
Whoomah!
I haven't been as consistent as I want to be with the cycling, but I am managing to do at least one ride a week.
Last ride was during a windy night.. Of course the headwind was on the uphill, which is about 6 miles in total, even though most of it is slight.
29.91 miles.
2:21 hours.
12.6 mph avg.
Quickest mile; edit 3:02 minutes.
I wasn't trying at all to beat my previous best, but I ended up being only 4 minutes shy of it.
Highest speed; 41.8 mph.
I measured the steepest part of the climb. It's only 1/3 of a mile, but it slows me to 6mph, and there's been occasions when i got off the bike and walked. Lately, i've taken to keeping it in the middle ring and standing up on the pedals, where before i'd go straight to the small big combo and spin. Same effect, 6.8 mph or so. It's still an incline after that, so no respite. That entire part of the climb is 1.28 miles long and it took me 11 minutes to climb.
I'm super happy with my progress. The ride is getting easier and easier. It's getting easier and easier to maintain a higher cadence. My legs aren't giving up as much as they used to. I'm finding I have a lot more energy towards the end of the bike ride. Lots and lots of positives.
Last edited by neanderthal; May 3rd, 2014 at 10:32 PM.
Nice! Hope to experience similar progress as winter finally releases its grasp on us where I live.Originally Posted by neanderthal
They do when they're dry.
Waffle fabric long-johns rule.
I've gotten sweaty skiing down the long runs we have out here in the west and then ridden the lift back to the top of the mountain and arrived at the top practically encased in ice under my outer layers.
Oh, and I finally have a reason to mention my bottom br
acket
I can pedal through almost any corner on my MTB but the road bike's pedals scrape the ground if I lean over too far without stopping pedaling and raising the inner pedal.
I can live with that, but it was a rather exciting surprise when it happened unexpectedly today. For 1/1000th of a second, I thought I was going down hard.
Speaking of pedals, these are what I have installed now - MKS Sylvan touring pedals, made in Japan, I think. I will probably go to SPDs or whatever all the cool kids ride eventually and move these to my MTB or my wife's bike or some future bike but Rome wasn't built in a day and I'm still learning about road bikes.
I wasn't trying for that shadow effect on the carpet to show another angle of the drive-side pedal but that came out pretty well, I think. They're classic-looking pedals that really work with this older steel frame bike, I think.
Last edited by George; May 3rd, 2014 at 08:16 PM.
I'm not sure cool kids ride SPDs. It depends on the discipline.
I, for nor, run SPDs on all my bikes. INCLUDING my road bike, where most roadies would run SPD-SL.
I'm hardcore 2 d4 B0n3 y0
Some of you may have seen on FB I went on a short mountain bike ride a few days ago with my teammate and a GTA finalist who didn't quite win (Jett - he lives right by Laguna and bikes in the area all the time).
I hadn't been on a bike since 2011 GTA. Before that, it had been about 15 years since I rode my BMX up and down my street.
So the other day I'm riding this sweet mountain bike up steep sandy climbs and down rutted hills, going slow like the noob I am. Only fell off 3 times, and probably wore down a set of brake pads on the descents, but had a blast. My brain loves cycling among the trails and scenery. My body not so much but that's to be expected not having done it before. I was a much better rider on mile 8 than I was on mile 1. I love when the trail turns into a wide downhill section with no ruts and you can get some good momentum going! Speed junkie I am.
It has rekindled my desire to get a MTB eventually, and find places to ride. I had been thinking I would like it, and it's good to know I do.
The climb up to the corksckrew is a long and steep one on a bike, in case you were wondering.
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